Question

I have this object:

public class Announcement
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public DateTime  DateSent { get; set; }
        private IList<string> _recipients;
        public IList<string> Recipients
        {
            get { return _recipients; }
            set { _recipients = value; }
        }

        public string RecipientsString 
        {
            get { return String.Join("\n", _recipients); }
            set { _recipients = value.Split('\n').ToList(); }
        }
    }

I can populate this object with the DateSent and RecipientString (a string of email addresses separated by \n) and save it to the database with no problems.

Now I want to move this to a web service so we can use it across multiple apps.

I created the exact same object in the webservice, and testing locally (on the service) everything works as expected.

But if I populate the object on the client and pass it to the service to be saved, the RecipientString is always empty (not null). The DateSent is fine.

I’m guessing the data is getting lost in serialization, but I don’t know why, or how to solve this. I thought also, it could have something to do with the @ in the email address, but I’ve ruled that out. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

This happens because de WSDL that is generated to describe your service can’t describe the function that is used in your get and set functions. I suggest you keep RecipientsString as a common property, and create a private method GetRecipients on your class that processes the RecipientsString value and returns the list you need.